Love in Country (De La Fuente Family #4)(26)

I feel his eyes on me, so I slowly place the watering can down, and turn to face him. My eyes roam over his body and my mouth still waters at the sight of him in denim.

His eyes are as focused on me as mine are on him and when our gazes finally lock, I remind myself why I haven’t made any effort to get in touch with him…and my reason is the redhead down the street.

“You lost?” I ask, and see his mouth tighten.

“No, are you?”

I close my eyes and breathe through my temper at Aiden before I snap them open and answer, “I know exactly where I am. I’m in my new home.”

“Greg?” he asks.

“Greg is living with his boyfriend. He and I are in the process of getting a divorce.”

Aiden steps close until we’re nearly toe-to-toe. “After all this time, you’re finally getting a divorce and you have this place, which I’m presuming is yours and not his,” he drops his hands to his sides and whispers, “and you’ve been avoiding me. Why?” He’s upset, and considering where he slept last night, I don’t understand why.

Sighing, I respond, “I didn’t think my single status mattered to you anymore.” I shrug and head inside, hoping he’ll leave.

In the kitchen, I look out the window as my fingers grip the sink in front of me. I need to hold in my tears, but one escapes.

“Sarah?” he whispers from behind me.

I dip my head when I feel his hands on my hips.

“I sent a couple of messages at first, but then they all kept saying undelivered. I figured you’d blocked me. Then I heard you’d gone out of town with Greg…I didn’t know what to think. I waited for you to get in touch with me, but you never did.”

I swallow and try to control my tears, but they fall anyway as I admit, “Greg blocked you on my phone. I had no idea and he only told me yesterday. As for going out of town, that was to talk to his lawyer about the divorce…I’ve heard the gossip, Aiden.” His caressing thumbs freeze on my hip.

“I told you that there was nothing between Rae and me,” he growls and then sighs, dropping his chin to my shoulder.

His closeness and having his hands on me makes me want to forget why I’ve kept my distance, but it’s not so easy to forget.

“I couldn’t sleep last night so I sat on the front porch and watched the sunrise…I saw you and Rae, Aiden. I know you spent the night at her place.”

I slip out of his slackened grip. “I think it’s best if you leave and we both forget that there was ever anything between us.”

“No,” Aiden hisses the minute the words escape my mouth. “No way. You might be able to forget”—he corners me—“but, I can’t…and I won’t.”

His body against mine is so full of energy that it’s all I can do not to throw myself into his arms and beg him to take me. This is the Aiden I fell in love with and I realize that I’ve hurt him with my words.

“I’m not going to tell you again, so listen to me…I have never, not once, considered Rae as anything except a friend or a sister. That is all. Last night I drank beer and shared a pizza with her. I slept on the sofa. The gossipmongers are always going to be around putting their own spin on things. But I’m telling you that you are the only woman I want, and the one and only reason I stayed away is because I thought that was what you wanted. I guess I better admit that I also wanted you to be the one to come to me this time. I wanted to know that I meant enough to you to risk that.” He dips his head.

My hands reach up and caress his face. “Oh, Aiden. You mean everything to me, but with you staying away and then Rae, I thought you’d gotten fed up with waiting for me to be free. I’m sorry.”

Aiden shakes his head. “I’m sorry, too, Sarah.” He smiles and drops his forehead to mine. “Tomorrow, I want you to really meet Rae, okay? I want you to see for yourself that there is nothing but friendship between us.” He laughs. “Actually you should have been at the farm this morning and seen Rae with Diego. I’m not sure what’s going on between them, if anything, considering their ages, but it would have eased your mind.”

My heart thuds loudly in my ears at the look in his eyes as I whisper, “What now?” My hands sneak beneath the bottom of his t-shirt and when I feel the warmth of his skin, my fingers tingle. I caress back and forth on the skin just above his jeans and feel exhilarated when his belly quivers and his eyes darken.

Feeling bolder, I dip just under the waistband and move my fingers closer and closer to the front when he captures my hands in his.

“You keep doing that”—his eyes glitter with arousal—“you’re going to be touching more than you bargained for.”

It takes me a second or two to get his meaning and then my eyes widen as I glance down and see the bulge behind his zipper. I swallow and meet his gaze.

AIDEN

I’m trying so hard not to grab Sarah and take what she’s offering but I’m getting to the point of not being able to. She has me hard and throbbing behind my zipper and if I’d let her carry on with her fingers inside my jeans, then she would have encountered just how aroused I am.

“I want you, Aiden.”

I close my eyes and feel the burst of arousal as it shoots along my cock to leak as pre-ejaculate from the tip when Sarah rubs against me.